Staying with the Familiar - Seeing the New

It was a great day...out and about to see the beauty of Fall...new trees...new colors...and now time to sit quietly in my office ready to see what I had seen.  Could the camera see what my eye saw?  Maybe so...sometimes what I see stays in my heart and the camera never is the partner - and that is ok.  Really ok.

   All of a sudden I looked up and smiled - it was getting dark outside yet little Light was still here with me and the shadows of the curtains were totally fascinating.  I never had to go far and still I was still and saw...just is so simple.

Then my eyes moved down about a foot and I really sat there looking at the suncatcher we bought when we were shopping for our son's wedding present.  I saw it with a different perspective and noticed the colors as the light caught them.  Suncatcher indeed!!

Then I glanced up and out the window - it was time for sunset - yes sunset at 6PM and I was sitting in one of the most special places to get a front row seat - my desk chair.  Remember what the sky looks like with the bright and glaring sun...enough light to brighten our world!  But what brings me awed vision is what happens to the sky once the sun goes below the horizon and then gives us an awesome light show.  Tonight I saw pinks and reds and oranges like I haven't seen in quite awhile.  Oh what a gift to end a pretty perfect day.  My point...there is EXTRAORDINARY in the ORDINARY - there is spectacular vision right in front of our eyes all the time IF we simply take the time to BE STILL and SEE.  please remember this...just do.

And I promise that you will never - yes never - be disappointed!  Trust me and believe what is right in front of you. 

Protection from ???

What is she seeing?  What does each of see on our Journey?  Vision and perception are in the eyes of the beholder.  As I think about how to guide someone to take pictures and 'see' as I do, I feel challenged.  No one can take pictures as I do nor can I really take pictures like any of my photography friends - in real life or on their blogs or in their books.  I - as you - are unique individuals and what we see and do suits us only! 
   As I sat at the Harvest Moon Festival, I got the thought and vision to see how people protect themselves  - from the sun? from being seen?  from discovering or expressing who they really are?  This woman was totally fascinated by what???  Did she even know or was she lost in contemplation!?  We will never know.  I thought about what everyone was wearing - including the dude sitting next to me in the red cap.  The sun was hot and they were cool.  What better way to show variations than put them all together in one place to compare and contrast.

The Perfect Loom for this Weaving

Little Light brought me to this loom and this weaving!  I was captivated by the glimmering of the shiny threads in the green wool The Weaver was using for her piece - yesterday at the Havest Moon Festival in Greenville, DE.  She had a variegated wool she had traded with the woman working the wheel and the colors were so alive - yet so soft and vibrant.I just stood and watched her patiently putting the skein through - warp - weave?  I think the long ones are the warp and what she put through is the weave.  Used to think that weaving and having a loom was high on my craft list but then as the years passed and I discovered other fun ways of working with my hand, this , along with knitting, crocheting and now origami and even macrame went by the wayside.  I am fascinated by how many ways we can be creative.
   Loved talking to the Weaver - oops - forgot to get her name/card but could see the gleam in her eye when she talked about how much she totally loved what she was doing.  She said that IF I ever changed my mind, this little loom would be perfect for me - I could learn in one three hour class.  Not even tempted BUT totally filled with gratitude for the colors and the textures and the work she produced - and filled with gratitude that I could see many different views of her work with my camera - fun for me!!

Transitions and the Free Spirit

It's transition time...again...yet...still...it's coming close to the time of hanging out in the void to be still and see what doors life will open.  It's time to realize that it is time to clean and purge to be ready to move on!!  Last week I met friend, Annee, at Cape May for a 'sleepover' - she took the Ferry from Delaware and we explored - created adventures and memories...all special...Saturday night is always a flag ceremony at Sunset Beach at Cape May Point.  I, and a multitude of others, sat and watched the color show in the sky.  At one point, I was sitting on the rock pile taking pictures - concerned that this young girl was "in my way".  Then I got a clear message, "She is NOT in your way.  She is part of it all!"  WOW - and I just began to include her and what turned out was this spectacular photo.  I call it FREE SPIRIT and know that my body, mind and soul aspire to be more free and dance on the rocks in the sunset...or wander among the flowers in the garden - or prepare for the magnificence of Fall colors!!  I stopped...watched...and listened...and it filled me with a sense of joy and wonder.

What does this say about Beth??

It's been years since "shoes" came into my life and now the concept - though it still includes people and their shoes - them as individuals - I am thinking that where people store their shoes and even more importantly HOW they store/organize them can also tell a lot about them.  I have been thinking about this for a few weeks but now realize that the thought came into my head more than a year ago when I was visiting Iowa.  My friend, Beth, was showing me around her house and when we got to her bedroom closet, I had to stop and take out the camera!!  What an opportunity.  What I didn't take was her husband's tie collection organized in his part of the closet!!   These pictures got put on a CD of the Iowa/Nebraska adventure and placed far in the back of my mind - until last week.  Then I had to think long and hard about this picture - this morning I went on a hunt and lo and behold - there they were.  Funny, I sent this picture to Beth and, as synchronicity would have it, she had been thinking of me and we needed to connect for all kinds of reasons!!  She also reminded me that somewhere in the recesses of her basement on an old Mac is a poem she began years agao about...tah dah...SHOES!  It's all coming together into some sort of wonderful plan!!

Sunsets Light Up the Sky -

Yesterday was one of those days when it was time to distance myself from the world - to be still - walk - watch - and reflect.  For weeks I have been wanting to go to East Point Light House on the Delaware Bay and that I did.  I have been rather emotional and sitting in the sand by the water is totally soothing!  The sun's shining helped a bunch too.  At sunset, I talked to a woman who was there with her phone taking pictures - asked where she was from and she said Pitman!!  As we talked more, she remembered I took pictures of the awesome clematis she had growing in her yard!!  We talked...and talked...and were still for the 'light show'.  Then as I was about to leave and had started the car, I took one more look - the low headlights from my car just provided a magnificent lighting for the final picture of the day.  It's like the saying that tells you to take pictures and then turn around because the best one might just be there!!

Beads, Baubles and Buttons: Candy for the Eye!!

It's not everyday that PhotoSchmoozer can go off 'down the shore' with a good friend to discover and be gifted with Candy for the Eye!  Yesterday was one of those special days and it was totally spectacular.  I got a postcard for an Innovative Bead Show in West Atlantic City.  Since it was mid-winter, blustery cold and time for something to bring light and warmth to our hearts, off we went!!  We weren't the least bit disappointed.  Driving East on the Black Horse Pike, we wondered what we might find.  Since we are interested in making drums and quilts, there had to something for everyone!!  We were not surprised as we walked into the room to the glitter and gleam of zillions of colors.  The fact that the displays were arranged as they were and the fact that the lights at the exhibit sites shown directly on the beads - well, no surprise there either!!   It was a feast for our eyes!!   Karen and I started off together, but slowly drifted apart into worlds of our own exploration.  I spent a long time with Priscilla who imports her wooden and paper beads and buttons from the Phillipines.  Karen, on the other hand, spent a lot of time with the cutest little 'doomies' as she calls them  - animals, flowers, and other shapes all of cloissoine from China.  When we came together it was to show each other our discoveries and find more together - strings of beads for $1 or $2 - what deals!!  

A gold bracelet (well gold colored beads NOT a gold bracelet) that we each chose independently - it could easily be cut apart to make designs.  Finally, I went out to sit a spell while Karen finished and talked to a guy who was patiently waiting for his wife.  We were talking about where to eat on the way home.  It was an involved conversation with others around us as well.  No decisions were made, but to end this story on a synchronistic note, we got out of the car at Red Lobster and there they were!!   Our minds just drifted off in the same direction and ended up there!!  Funny...just funny...and no need to go into raptures about those biscuits.  For those who have eaten there, you know what I mean!!

And the Perfect Fall day...tah dah!!!

This is the last post for today because as I sit her and create these, I realize that it is almost two in the afternoon and the perfect Fall day that I am talking about is right outside my window and if I stay here, I will miss it totally - and now wouldn't that be a shame (since the rain is due to come for the next few days.)  I just wanted to take the time and show you a few pictures from Morris Arboretum - the giant Japanese bell, and the entrance to the giant bird's next with the blue robin's eggs, the suspended bridge and lots more wonderful parents and children out with us encouraging and FUN for the day.  OK...enjoy the glory and I am going to go and revel in same!!  PS: the woman in the upper left is Connie - the perfect person to be at the welcome wagon and share the facility and events with the public.  She is just gentle and charming and I know that I felt honored to have her focused time talking with me.  She is definitely a DARE to AFFIRM person!!  She makes everyone feel as if they are special!!